1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage medium having a NAND-type flash memory, and more particularly, to a NAND-type flash memory integrated-circuit (IC) card having a plurality of NAND-type flash memory components for storing information.
2. Description of the Related Art
The flash memory is a kind of non-volatile memory in which stored information is not volatile even though power is turned off, differently from a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) or a static random access memory (SRAM). The flash memory does not need a particular battery to keep the stored information. Also, the flash memory does not occupy a large space nor consume a large amount of power in use. Also, the flash memory enables high speed programming. Because of these advantages, the flash memory is widely used in various apparatuses such as still cameras and an electronic games as well as mini-computers, a workstations and a memory cards.
There are two kinds of the flash memory, that is, a NOR-type and a NAND-type which are classified according to a memory access method. The NOR-type flash memory has a structure having an address bus, a data bus and a control bus which separately exist. On the contrary, the NAND-type flash memory transmits instructions, addresses and data via an input/output bus and uses a particular control signal for discerning information transmitted via the input/output bus.
When flash memories are used as storage media, it is desirable that such storage media be manufactured as a miniature IC card such as a magnetic tape or a compact disk which is attached to and detached from a system. The IC card having a plurality of flash memory components needs a control apparatus for controlling the memory components. The IC card having the NOR-type flash memory components has a advantage in that larger data storage capacities require more access address pins, although such components have been manufactured and used by the INTEL company. However, an IC card having NAND-type flash memory components has not yet been manufactured. Thus, there remains a need for a storage medium using NAND-type flash memory as a storage medium.